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| TRANSDNIESTER-AN OPEN ISSUE(29.05.2007) |
| (2007-05-29) |
| Last updated: 2007-05-30 15:19 EET |
‘The Republic of Moldova might be the first country to be won back by the Kremlin from the West since the 1970’s onwards”, writes The Economist. Independent since August 1991, following the abortive neo-Bolshevik coup in Moscow, Kishinev has never succeeded in severing the umbilical cord that has linked it to the former metropolis.
Both the psychological dependence of its political elite and Moldova’s energy dependence have largely contributed to this status quo. Moreover, the Russian labour market has drawn Moldovan nationals and their main agricultural exports.
Voted into power in 2001, pro-Russian Communists have lately taken a pro-European stance, while making sure they don’t fall out of Moscow’s grace. Russian Federation troops were deployed in the east of the republic in 1992 and are still there. They intervened during the armed conflict pitching Kishinev against pro-Russians in Transdniester, and made a decisive contribution on the side of the separatists.
15 years of negotiations over the Transniester crisis in various formats with an eventual 5+2 format have proved barren. The 5+2 format includes Kishinew, Tiraspol, the OSCE, Russia, Ukraine plus the EU and the US and as observers. Although internationally unacknowledged, Transdniester’s independence has consolidated de facto.
As early as the 1999 OSCE summit in Istanbul, Russia committed itself to withdrawing its troops and arsenals from Transdniestr, but, following repeated delays and idle pretexts, the latter have remained in place. Romanian foreign minister Adrian Cioroianu said on Monday that quote ‘I’m afraid the Russian army will withdraw from Transdniester’, adding that, quote ‘I’m afraid of this because I ignore the cost of this pullout. Here is only one sollution: the so-called plan to solve the Transdniester issue that the international media has extensively covered”. Unquote.
The media says that a potential pullout of Russian troops from Transdniester would occur if separatists joined the Kishinew government and Parliament, where they could block any major domestic or foreign policy decision. That means that, after winning a battle victory in 1992, Tiraspol will now conquer Kishinew without firing a shot. Already endorsed by the Kremlin, the document might be signed on June 10th by Russian president Vladimir Putin and his Moldovan counterpart Vladimir Voronin, on the sidelines of the Commonwealth of Independent States Summit.
It may be then submitted to Brussels as an accomplished fact. Such a bilateral agreement, the Eurobserver concludes, might drive the Republic of Moldova, which until now had voiced its desire to be close to the EU, back under Russia’s influence.
(Bogdan Matei)
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